In 1943, she and Coppola got divorced, but she stayed in Argentina, ostensibly to raise their son and daughter, and became a citizen in 1958. From 1937 until 1941, Stern and Coppola ran a studio together. Shortly after they arrived, they mounted the first exhibition of modernist photography in Argentina. In 1935, Stern and her new husband, Horacio Coppola (1906–2012), a photography student from Argentina, moved to Buenos Aires, escaping the Nazis. Working in a field dominated by men, they were pioneers, and their work has been the subject of a traveling exhibition that opened at the Museum Folkwang (October 10, 1993–November 28, 1993), as well as a film, Ringl and Pit (1995), produced and directed Juan Mandelbaum. The two women designed advertisements, took portraits, and experimented with the medium. In 1929, when Peterhans moved from Berlin to Dessau to begin teaching, Stern and Auerbach bought his equipment and opened their own commercial photography studio, Ringl & Pit, which was named after their childhood nicknames in order to hide the fact that they were Jewish. It is through Peterhans that Stern met another student, Ellen Auerbach (1906–2004). 18, Café Concert” (1948) (all images via unless otherwise noted) Through him she met the radical, self-taught Umbo (Otto Umbehr), who suggested that Stern study privately with Walter Peterhans, who later taught at the Bauhaus School in Dessau. After seeing an exhibition of photographs by Edward Weston and Paul Outerbridge, she decided to study photography further and moved to Berlin in 1927 to live with her brother Walter, a film editor. Fiercely independent, she went against her parents’ wishes and studied graphic design and photography in Stuttgart. Grete Stern, who was Jewish, was born in Elberfeld, Germany, in 1904. I believe that “Los Sueños,” a group of forty-six photomontages of the nearly one hundred and fifty that she made for a women’s newsstand magazine, Idilio, between 19 has never been shown in its entirety outside of Argentina and Spain. Stern, who lived most of her life in Argentina, is more obscure than Mortensen. Now that Photoshop has become ubiquitous, perhaps Mortensen’s fortune will change. In his seminal study, The History of Photography from 1839 to the Present (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1937), Beaumont Newhall left Mortensen out altogether. In the ensuing argument between Mortensen and the purists, straight photography won out. Born nearly a decade before Sommer and Laughlin, and working at the same time as Edward Steichen (1879 –1973) and Alfred Steiglitz (1864–1946), Mortensen championed photographic manipulation over straight photography, and paid for it dearly.Īnsel Adams (1902–1984) dubbed Mortensen “the Anti-Christ,” which tells you how much he was reviled and feared by “straight” photographers. #BIRD OF THE DEATH DREAM PHOTOGRAPHY CLARENCE LAUGHLIN MANUALS#I suspect Fineman separated Stern’s photomontages because together they would have overwhelmed and subverted what was around them.īefore discussing Stern’s work, I want to say something about William Mortensen (1897–1965), who was both a photographer and the author of numerous manuals and books, including Madonnas and Monsters (1936). 44: The Accused)” (1948) is out in the hallway. 1: Electrical Appliances for the Home)” (1949) didn’t disappoint me. 1: Articulos eléctricos para el hogar (Dream No. I went to see the photomontages of Grete Stern (1904–1999), which Fineman grouped under the rubric “Mind’s Eye.” I found one of her photomontages - there were two in the exhibition - on the same wall as Frederick Sommer’s iconic “Max Ernst” (1946), Clarence John Laughlin’s “The Masks Grow to Us” (1947) and William Mortensen’s “Human Relations” (1932). Fineman presents the work in thematic groups, such as “Politics and Persuasion” and “Novelties and Amusements. Yves Klein leaps into the void and Lyndon Johnson’s nose grows long and pointed (would that this would happen to all politicians who lie to their constituents!). There are many reasons to go see Faking It: Manipulated Photography Before Photoshop, curated by Mia Fineman, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1: Electrical Appliances for the Home)” (1949) (image via )
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